8. Overzealous cost cutting

A penny saved is a penny earned, but not if you’re ”saving” by buying inadequate equipment.

A 24-port switch seems like it would be just about enough, so you purchase it. But in no time, you need more ports and buy a second 24-port switch, when a 48-port switch would have cost less in the first place.

Because you don’t want to invest in another cabinet, you start to crowd equipment. Then you buy a fan panel because your equipment is overheating. After you lose equipment to heat, you finally buy the extra cabinet you should have bought in the first place.

You get a bargain price on CAT6 cable. After you install it, you find out it’s not up to CAT6 standards—it’s CAT5 or lower, relabeled as CAT6—and you have to recable. That’s when you find out that as much as 20% of the cable for sale in today’s market is unsafe, non-approved, or counterfeit.

Buying insufficient or low-quality equipment is a sure way to increase costs in the long run. In fact, because demands on networks are increasing all the time, it’s wise to go in the opposite direction and invest in more infrastructure than you need at the moment and grow into it.

Save money by comparison shopping or negotiating volume discounts for large installations. Don’t try to save money by buying inadequate equipment. Always buy from reliable sources to ensure that you’re actually getting what you ordered and not a substandard or counterfeit product.